Blog Archives

Looking For Culture In The Malls Of Singapore

What is culture? At first glance the amiable sales person was Chinese, but this was not China and we were dealing in English. I wanted a cultural experience, not the camera. Or so I thought.

A Tale of Buddhism Revived

With a name like Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum, it doesn’t sound like a tourist attraction, but I was captivated at this new Singapore museum, built with $50 million in private donations from the Chinese business community.

Don’t Confuse Us With Confucius

Singapore political architect Lee Kwan Yew and his offhand critic, the American global anthropologist Clifford Geertz, needed to talk. About colonialism, democracy, culture. . . First of two essays on the possible city-state of the future.